Bulgaria’s parliament should punish Kostadin Kostadinov, leader of Bulgarian pro-Russian party Vazrazhdane, mayors of municipalities with a Bulgarian population in Ukraine’s Odesa wrote in a letter published Friday, reacting to Kostadinov threatening to deport all Ukrainian refugees from Bulgaria if he comes to power.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Bulgaria has welcomed many Ukrainians, with about 50,000 now working and living there permanently. In Ukraine, Bulgarians primarily reside in southern Ukraine, notably in Bohlrad in Odesa Oblast, and are the fifth largest minority.
In the letter, the Ukrainian Bulgarians refute Kostadinov’s claims that they demanded that part of the Odesa region be autonomous.
Such behaviour “directly serves the imperial aspirations of Russia, which uses the topic of autonomy to impose its influence and advance territorial claims,” they added.
At the start of the war, Ukraine forbade Kostadinov to set foot on Ukrainian territory on a signal from the Bulgarian services that he was a Russian spy.
Kostadinov’s comments regarding Southern Bessarabia, which he called “an old Bulgarian land with old Bulgarian cities temporarily under Ukrainian administration”, which he said should be made autonomous for Bulgarians, also shocked the leaders of the Bulgarian communities in Ukraine.
Kostadinov’s behaviour is “gross interference in the internal affairs of Ukraine, support for separatism and Russian military aggression against Ukraine,” they added.
“We remind you that only after the restoration of Ukraine’s independence in 1991, ethnic Bulgarians received all legislative and factual opportunities to preserve their identity, study and develop their language and culture,” the letter reads.
“Children of ethnic Bulgarian origin can learn the Bulgarian language as a native even in the conditions of martial law, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in the conditions of constant Russian missile and armed terror,” it also said.
In their letter, the Bessarabian Bulgarians called the Ukrainian part of Bessarabia – the part of the Odesa region near Romania and Moldova – a multicultural region.
They comment that the separatist statements of a representative of the Bulgarian authorities offend not only the Bulgarians in Ukraine but also the Gagauz, Moldovans, Lipovans, Albanians, Roma, Germans, Armenians and other peoples who have lived peacefully together on this territory for more than 200 years.
“We call on the Bulgarian parliament to condemn the leader of Vazrazhdane party in its attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of Ukraine and to use Ukrainian ethnic Bulgarians as a tool to cover up his dirty political interests,” the letter also reads.
The letter says that “the ethnic Bulgarians of Ukraine are defending their country and their homes from the aggressor because the Russian occupation brings injustice and oppression to all peoples, except the Russians.”
(Krassen Nikolov | EURACTIV.bg)
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